ok. take pen and paper and sit down for history of hormones in bodybuilding 101,,an elective credit course out of gh15 mouth free of charge. it's going to be long,,but it is the ONLY truth when it comes to bodybuilding history and bodybuilding as a whole. there will be no exam at the end i will not take questions at the end. of the course it is a lecture,, so leave the questions for another day and time.

first,,i would like to start with a review of myself:

1) i am a VERY femiliar face very high regarded IFBB professional athlete,,there is not even one person in the bodybuilding industry that havent seen me or heard about my name. i WON not only competed BUT won proffessional shows before.

2) this lecure will include the such and such of bodybuilding early era (eugene, grimek, steve, bill and many more that due to limited space i wont be able to mention here) it will include key factor in that early bodybuilding era.

3) you MUST understand that i TOO like steve,, inorder for you to be able to read this all without getting crazy mad and smoke coming out of your ears. i DO respect reeves for his contribution to the bodybuilding industry and see him as one of all time best.i write this as an education for you and your peers and anything i say here that tarnish steve reputation is not meant to do so. this is only for you to learn and penetrate deeper into the hormone/stimulant arena of the late 30s and 40s.

4) im aware of the fact that some of you younger guys (im not talking about guys in their 40s) have steve as a big role model and he deserves this spot. he passed away now for years and it is like open a pandora box for nothing you will think. i think it is good education and i think it will help you decide the way you want to persue your bodybuilding life,,(wether naturally with specific low doses of products or chemically enhanced with taking your physiqe into the higher extreme levels of the npc competition)

5) quotes will NOT be provided since i am writing out of my vast knowledge and experience on myself and on "natural athletes" and chemical enhanced athletes,,i dont have time to go look for quotes for you on the internet or bring in old dead gurus out of the grave. if 240 wants or any other computer specialist,,they will be able to provide you with quotes and references.

6) the lecute will be mostly about steve as the base and everything around it (like an octopus and its many arms) due to late debate about this subject. again steve reeves WAS natural in todays terms. 100% NATURAL IN TODAY'S TERMINOLOGY. he only experiemented with hormones/drugs in their rough stages of development.

so lets start.

"and then there came steve reeves...."

the 19th century was full of books and lliterature about hormones and stimulants for their ability to help human kind. many writers wrote about it and fantesize about it exactly like many sci fi writers fantesized about the red planet and the journy to get there.

bodybuilding was nothing those days and rarely you would find someone who was involved in any type of body-building beside eugene and few select others. they did it with passion to live healthier and "extend" their life spans. they were NATURALS in the real essense of the word,,meaning they built their end physiqe on resistance training and food only (ofcourse there were caffine later on but it was natural) they had no sophisticated supplements either. nothing but good ole food. this era ended with eugene sadly. no one ever came to this level and no one will because the world has evolved and science became reality.

the 20th century brought a lot of promises with it. people were more interested in improving their body and life styles for other than health reasons. it became fashionable along the century in addition to a way of living due the progess achieved by medical research of those early 20s century years.

in all along the beggingin of the 20th century researches experiemnted through trial and error with specific compounds such as insulin etc inorder to eventually someday make it marketable. in 1924 or 25 ely lilly a famous company in usa has produced insulin after long time of research. it helped A LOT of people and in my opinion one of the best hormones of the century with aspects to medical use.ofcourse it changed the powerlifting and bodybuilding (bodybuilding was a tiny little fun those days) tremendesly!

untill the year of 1925 EVERYTHING in powerlifting and body-building (resistance training) was N A T U R A L,,past 1925 it was going a different direction.

i could talk about grimek specifically but the main substance of this lecture is steve reeves because then,,THE HUMAN BODY and bodybuilding was not marketable. pre steve reeves image there was only the will but there was no substance (as in frame and features) to work with commericaly to a satifying level. grimek was a very good bodybuilder that did experiement with the era rough compounds but his physiqe simply didnt cut it. he was indeed natural 100% in comparrison to todays "naturals" and chemical enhanced athletes.

THE STEVE REEVES BODYBUILDING ERA.

steve is the arnold of usa. he is the all american boy,, the ALL AMERICAN FRAT BOY IMAGE HAS BEEN DEVELOPED WITH STEVE REEVES IN MIND in the eyes of the american girls later on in the 60s and 70s. american pretty boy he was!. "and then came steve reeves.." is not a sentence that was said for nothing,,he was an all american pretty boy. he was tall, had wonderful frame, was nice and charming, he had what ever it takes. he was the HEART of the OCTOPUS body building wanted to become in usa. i repea,,t IN USA. no one cared about the rest of the world in those time. usa was ONLY usa when it comes to marketability of a bodybuilder.

inorder to understand steve reeves influence on the sport of bodybuilding better you need to know the support group and major people of the era that were the BRAIN of the octopus. i will introduce them here to a degree. these individuals contributed more than the athlete itself to the success of bodybuilding and power lifting in the usa and ofcourse around the world later on. they are all good people with good intentions and i respect them all. and here they are: mr. berry, mr johnson, mr blair, mr eugene SCHIFF, mr atlas, mr weider joe, mr hoffman, and ofcourse mr ziegler.

there you have it more or less,,the brain of the octopus. all of these individuals were and wanted make money out of bodybuilding and had to find a star in order to make the baby octopus a big and long armed one. the chosen one was steeve reeves. not to forget!! joe weider came to the scene in 1939-40 and soon later mr reeves popped up..he also only competed between 47 and 50 or 46-50 if my memory serves me correctly and thats because he was by then and only then ready (pay attention to the years).

joe weider is and was BODYBUILDING. he is the SOLE reason modern bodybuilding started and the sole reason bodybuilding will continue. he was the CONNECTION in a big chain of chimical reactions that could never happen unless he was there due to his enormous human skills and his ability to talk you into anything he believed in,,inaddition to his vast knowledge of individuals in diff fields who contributed to the industry some of whom are mentioned in this lecture.

the rest of the above mentioned individual were very important to bodybuilding in their own way and time but! the connection to the HORMONE WORLD was established late in the 30s and early in the 40s by mr weider and the most important person in this lecture beside steve,, and it is MR ZIEGLER.

mr ziegler was the brain and knowledge behind steve reeves enourmous advancment as a bodybuilder. joe weider was the cheerleader and the human skill factor that connected the "willing" people with the "right" people thus i name him "THE GLUE". those 2 brought steve reeves from a pretty boy young man to FAME as a pure usa bodybuilder. from there the way to movies was piece of cake since steve was both pretty boy and gained the muscle needed through training and experiemnting to be uniqe for that time in history.

now,,,after clarifying the brain behind reeves and "THE GLUE" (joe weider) we can take a look at how mr ziengler helped steve reeves.

mr ziegler was a doctor. DOCTOR FOR THE ATHLETES that worked with usa teams. not to forget! in those days a doctor was a king or a god depending on how you see it. he was invloved in rehabilitation therapy and had UNLIMITED acess to anything in the research industry. and oh he acsessed it he surely did with the full support from "THE GLUE".

john was very "connected" to the pharmacutical firm CIBA,,in other words he experiemnted with raw products all through the 40s. very high regarded products that were REAL PHARMA MADE. he had open approach to science and was very good with his research. he experiemnted with version of teststerone on himself ofcourse and then he continued with the general rich patient of his and THE ATHLETES he chose to.

the MAIN CHOSEN ATHLETE for john to work with a young guy by the name of STEVE. the chosen one according to "THE GLUE" had to be a novice,,someone that poses potential and not a joe shmoe,,someone BEAUTIFUL that can push the "health industry" into the eyes of the typical american family of the post WW2.

as i mentioned before CIBA and "THE GLUE" were very much in the chase for introducing american athletes especially body-builders to the testosterone hormone and since 1946 they were pushing it exteremly hard so from 1946 the researches on STEVE were a lot more consistant.

to make a story short,,,10 years later that same mr john ziegler introduced the popular dianabol tablet (derivative of testosterone) into the market produced by CIBA and it was a common house hold product of each and every bodybuilder from grimek in his later years through bill that extended it to the use of nilevar (another very good drug) through a consistant and very organized use of bodybuilders like larry. larry was already using it like candies spread along the day. those were the days animals and humans became alike in many ways atleast drug wise.

getting back to the experiements ziegler conducted with young steve there were other products they tried to see the wat the testosterone will react with them. ziegler tried a fat burner called DNP on steve along with testosterone propionate in its rough older version. insulin another favorite hormone i talked about earlier in this lesson was also experiemented with inorder to see the reaction of the 3 compounds with eachother for muscle building and muscle retaining purposes ONLY. DOCTOR ziegler had an open acess to ANY compound he decided he wanted to research and had a complete back up of CIBA pharmacuticals.

so there we have it: THE BRAIN,,THE GLUE,,AND THE GOLDEN BOY. the creation of modern bodybuilding in its better days when every one was innocent. the researches were very interesting and they also helped the golden boy achieving his dreams. it helped every one in many ways . one became a tycoon of money and the leader i OUTMOST respect,,,yes i respect joe a lot,,,one became the inventor of the best most sold hormone in the sports world and he did regret it at the end of his live BUT he will forever be thankful by us bodybuilders,,and ofcourse it helped us the next generations to realize dreams we never thought were possible,,it helped us achieve wonderful careers and see places we would never see otherwize all through the 60s and 70s.

then came the late 70s early 80s and the ABUSE started. and abuse brought us down to a level that to me is very shocking. a level that got to its lower with the murderer as of recently.

to back up this lecture with literature i am attaching here underneath an article about the researches done with testosterone all along the 20th century. the article is not exactly accurate but i approve it more or less.

i hope you enjoyed it and again this isnot inorder to bring someone down BUT inorder to build someone up!

we,,the industry,, are in trouble,,bodybuilding as you know it will end with ron coleman this is the max a human can develop himself. i do not think bodybuilding will ever stop its existance,,,but the physiqe you see now it at its max development.

end

*copy and save this lesson,, it is a tresure for any new and upcoming bodybuilder wether you are natural or enhanced. i would charge close to $1500 for a one hour lecture such as this.

article

Testosterone Dreams

Sex, doctors, and the male hormone

Testosterone dreams are the fantasies of hormonal rejuvenation, sexual excitement, and supernormal athletic performances that have been inspired by testosterone drugs since the “male hormone” testosterone was first synthesized in 1935. Shortly after testosterone was produced in a European laboratory, following a competition among three pharmaceutical companies, Time magazine reported that: “German and Swiss chemical laboratories are already prepared … to manufacture from sheep’s wool all the testosterone the world needs to cure homosexuals (and) revitalize old men.” Imaginative interpretations of the power of hormones—a word that was invented in 1905—proliferated for decades even before the eventual synthesis of testosterone. “Attempts have been made to explain even psychic processes such as emotions and states of mind through the increase or diminution or alterations of this or that gland,” as one scientist noted in Endocrinology in 1919. In short, hormonal substances were granted a power to shape personality and produce euphoric states that they have retained to this day.

Over the past seven decades, the growing use of testosterone and its derivatives, the anabolic-androgenic steroids, have demonstrated that many people around the world are interested in using testosterone products for a variety of purposes. These practices run the gamut from legal procedures such as “anti-aging” therapies, which employ these androgenic drugs with synthetic human growth hormone, to the illegal use of anabolic steroids by many bodybuilders, athletes, and some policemen, who view physical strength and aggression as requirements for performing on stage, in the stadium, or on the street. The use of synthetic testosterone as a sexual stimulant is also becoming increasingly common among older people who belong to a generation that increasingly regards sexual fulfillment as a lifelong entitlement.

Sexuality in conservative timesTestosterone became a charismatic drug during the 1940s because it promised sexual stimulation and renewed energy. Physicians described the optimal effect of testosterone drugs as a feeling of “well-being,” a term that has been used many times since the 1940s to characterize their positive effect on mood. In the early 1940s testosterone was hailed in pharmaceutical advertising as a mood-altering drug whose primary purpose was the sexual restoration and reenergizing of aging males. It appeared at that time that an inexpensive supply, widespread demand, and favorable medical opinion would soon produce a major market for testosterone products.

The first public advocate of testosterone therapy for aging men was the popular science journalist Paul de Kruif, whose manifesto The Male Hormone was published with some fanfare in 1945. Excerpted in Reader’s Digest and promoted by a full-page review in Newsweek (“Hormones for He-Men”), The Male Hormone was in some respects a prophetic book. The potential market for a rejuvenating male hormone seemed to be enormous: “How many millions of American males, not the men they used to be, would flock to the physicians and the druggist, a bit shame-faced and surreptitious, maybe, but hopeful, murmuring: ‘Doc, how about some of this new male hormone?’”

Testosterone did not become a mass market drug in the 1940s due to the sexual conservatism of most American physicians and the society they served. The belief that testosterone was a stimulating drug made it a potential threat to sexual morality as well as a promising therapy. Sensational coverage had given the male hormone a quasi-pornographic image that its female counterpart estrogen had never acquired. Commenting on testosterone’s unsavory reputation in 1946, Science Digest reported that “the uninformed continue to believe that the sole use of this innocent chemical is to turn sexual weaklings into wolves, and octogenarians into sexual athletes.”

The 1940s also saw the use of testosterone therapy as an experimental “cure” for homosexuality. The medical view of homosexuality as a type of endocrine deficiency made the use of testosterone propionate to reverse homosexual orientation virtually predictable. As one physician in 1940 put it: “If homosexuality is merely the result of an endocrine disturbance, the prospect for its cure must be excellent today.”

The idea that the bodies of homosexuals contained less male hormone and more female hormone than those of heterosexuals first appeared in 1935. By 1940 a number of investigators were confident enough in their ability to assay hormone levels to claim that homosexuality was rooted in abnormal sex hormone ratios rather than the psychological complexes hypothesized by Freud and others. “It seems,” one research team wrote, “that the constitutional homosexual has a different sex hormone chemistry than the normal male.” The fallacy of this therapeutic rationale became evident soon enough. Testosterone propionate combined with chorionic gonadotropin was not curing homosexuals, even in studies that encouraged belief in the drug and did not compare its effects with those of a placebo. In fact, it was becoming increasingly clear that androgens did not reverse but actually intensified homosexual libido, so that “sometimes instead of helping one gets a worsening of the condition.”

Prescription for women?Testosterone drugs were also the favored pharmacological technique of the 1940s for treating sexual “frigidity” in women. Testosterone propionate ointment could be applied to the vulva or clitoris to increase genital sensitivity. Testosterone could be injected or pellets implanted under the skin to intensify libido. By 1943 testosterone propionate was reported to be in widespread use to treat women with sexual and other endocrine disorders. In 1947 a team of authors noted that over the previous decade “the effect of androgens in increasing libido in women has been an almost universal observation.” It appeared that androgens influenced libido in three ways, “causing a) a heightened susceptibility to psychic stimulations; b) increased sensitivity of the external genitalia, particularly of the clitoris and c) greater intensity of sexual gratification.” Perhaps the most interesting point about these scientifically primitive observations is that they have been repeatedly confirmed by later investigators."......

....The idea that women are the principal cause of sexual problems in marriage has been a staple of medical folklore for more than a century. Men were assumed to have a stronger sexual impulse than women. Over the many years the term was in circulation, the medical literature always assigned sexual “frigidity” exclusively to women. The disorder once known as male “impotence,” and that was eventually rechristened “erectile dysfunction,” never carried the same stigma of emotional deficiency and personal inadequacy. Impotence was an unfortunate physiological problem, while “frigidity” signaled a defective personality and a failure to live up to a wife’s marital obligations. Some (male) doctors knew perfectly well that a great deal of the “frigidity” displayed by wives was the direct result of sexually ignorant or indifferent husbands. A 1931 JAMA editorial, for example, argues that most female “frigidity” is caused by the emotional disinterest of husbands who had “obtained their premarital knowledge of the sexual act from intercourse with prostitutes” whose sexual gratification was of no interest to the paying customer.

The medical literature offered various cures for female “frigidity.” During the 1930s and 1940s these included the use of electricity to sensitize the vaginal mucous membrane: “The treatment consists in inserting a large vaginal electrode into the vagina, connecting it with the negative pole, while the positive pole is connected with a wet abdominal electrode, the galvanic current is allowed to pass for about ten minutes. Without disturbing the electrodes, we now give the sinusoidal-galvanic current for another ten minutes. No pain must be caused by the treatment.” Other commentators, as noted, recommended sexual education for the many husbands who appeared to know nothing about female sexual anatomy or psychology. It was during the 1930s that proposals to use hormonal substances to boost female sex drive began to appear with increasing frequency in the medical literature.

By the end of that decade synthetic testosterone propionate and methyltestosterone had become, in effect, experimental drugs that were being used for various (and, in retrospect, usually mistaken) clinical purposes. Megadoses sometimes amounting to thousands of milligrams that were intended to neutralize estrogen-driven breast cancers were one application. One of the unofficial dogmas of this early period was that the male hormone would sexually stimulate men and that estrogens would have a similar effect on women. Androgens were sometimes applied to the penis, while estrogens were applied to the clitoris. The discovery that testosterone sexually stimulated females thus came as a shock to the physicians who observed this effect. A 1941 paper reports the author’s reaction to this phenomenon in both young and old women: “My attention was first drawn to it by several elderly women who found the resurgence of libido distressing. The phenomenon is equally as striking among young women. A number of married women, who had considered themselves frigid, stated that after receiving the testosterone propionate injections they experienced a marked increase in coital gratification, culminating in an orgasm.”

1. CIBA didn't start manufacturing steroids until around 1958. You still haven't produced a single shred of evidence to the contrary.

2. Just because scientists isolated testosterone in the 1930's doesn't mean athletes were using it back then. That's a huge leap in logic.

3. John Grimek's physique definitely "cut it". He won the Mr. America twice and even beat Steve Reeves in the 1948 Mr. Universe.

4. Weider did not create bodybuilding by any stretch of the imagination. Steve Reeves and John Grimek had nothing to do with Joe Weider. The IFBB wasn't even very important until the 1970's.

5. You're an ignoramus.

grimek did not have the face my friend. the over all aspect of bodybuilding those days was health! the rest of what you wrote just show how ignorance you are simply put. what i wrote above it not up for debate it is the BIBLE of bodybuilding in the mdoern age. wize yourself up

if after you this lecute you still have the courage to be smart ass with me then only thing i can suggest to you is to go and erase your getbig account

Thanks gh15 for spending your time to enlighten (or try to enlighten) some of the obtuse individuals who still do not believe there is a wolf even after seeing the tracks in the snow…

And to brianx, although CIBA didn't start manufacturing Methandrostenoloneuntil ~1958, in the early to mid 40s numerous pharmaceutical firms (specifically Searle and Ciba) were experimenting and developing many different testosterone derivatives and similar androgen type drugs…

And Joe Weider published the first issue of Your Physique magazine in 1939 with the start of the IFBB (International Federation of Bodybuilders), in 1946 by Ben Weider….

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there it still makes noise……

Whats funny is this is the first time anyones heard this story because thats exactly what it is , nothing more than a story which he simply can't verify , he attempts to have others verify his story for him by having 240 look up the sources for him lol

These are proveable facts in his book Building a classic physique the natural way , Steve Reeves outright denies ever taken steroids or even hearing of them untl the mid-1960s.

Another fact is Ciba and Dr John Zeigler didn't produces anabolic steroids until 1956 and didn't even know about about testosterone use in atheletes until the Russians in 1954 at the world games

Quote

As the team doctor for U.S. weight lifters, Ziegler discovered at the 1954 World Games in Vienna that the Soviets were using testosterone to boost strength. But in addition to lifting incredible amounts of weights, the Soviet athletes also exhibited the hormone's masculinizing side effects, such as testicles that were shrunken and prostates that were so enlarged the athletes had to be catheterized in order to urinate.

this is when he returned to the US and began work on dianabol. here is the link. the first weightlifter/bodybuilder he used them on was Bill March in 1959.

the last time i heard this sentence it was said on cnn interview by a sore loser by the name of "floyd test",,if im not mistaken another liar by the name of armstrong used this quote on many occations. they brought disgrace to the cycling community as a whole due to lack of knowledge of drugs and implementation of their drug routines.

as i said before this lecture i gave is not up for debate by me or any other proffesional bodybuilder because we know it to be true. it is a mere enlightment to your stubern self and few others that i will refrain from doing any more because i delivered the main point needed.i attached a long paper that was not written by me to back up the tremendous research that ws done during the 30s and 40s with testosterone and society as a whole.

american olympic athletes started using hormones in the early-mid 50s,,bodybuilder started a long time before!

lastly,,if you want to find a better quote try this one:

"it is better for one to lay low and remain quiet hold his head high and claim he won the war rather than fighting a losing battle"

and in your language: the less you talk the more respect you will leave mr. reeves with my friend.

im not up for debating this subject any more it is time to let him rest in peace.

Whats funny is this is the first time anyones heard this story because thats exactly what it is , nothing more than a story which he simply can't verify , he attempts to have others verify his story for him by having 240 look up the sources for him lol

These are proveable facts in his book Building a classic physique the natural way , Steve Reeves outright denies ever taken steroids or even hearing of them untl the mid-1960s.

Another fact is Ciba and Dr John Zeigler didn't produces anabolic steroids until 1956 and didn't even know about about testosterone use in atheletes until the Russians in 1954 at the world games

this is when he returned to the US and began work on dianabol. here is the link. the first weightlifter/bodybuilder he used them on was Bill March in 1959.

yes, it's difficult to prove things from 50-70 years ago, but I do believe that the top bodybuilders were injecting testosterone esters throughout the 1940s. In Strength and Health magazine, there are articles about Eiferman and Delinger both gaining 30-40 pounds over the summer prior to their Mr America wins. The connection: they both spent the summer at Yarick's gym in Oakland. Oh, btw, Yarick also trained Reeves.

Looking at photos of Steve Reeves over the years, he was his biggest, thickest, hardest, in 1953. That was after he stopped competing, and before his movie career took off. If he used steroids, it was that summer.

Testosterone esters were first mentioned in Strength and Health in 1938. It was not a controlled substance. It was available. Why wouldn't top athletes been using it?

ND seems determined to the point of obsession with denying that Reeves ever used the gear, basing all of his evidence on the fact that REEVES HIMSELF denied it People that have at one time denied using the gear:ReevesScottArnoldArmstrongGatlinJonesRonnie What do they all have in common?People say they've never done steroids because they think it makes them look as though they have awesome genetics - that they are above mere mortals who have to resort to 'cheating' by using the gear. Pathetic. You've lost this one ND.

"ND, you don't know what you're talking about! I used steroids! They turned from a genetically blessed pretty boy into a legend! I owe it all to steroids. Now let me rest in peace. [you'll love it in Heaven; testosterone flows in the rivers and dbol grows on trees]

Good read. It seems to fit that Weider would "supplement" the Golden Boy of the past era, as he did with Arnold of the next era.

However, if you look in Arnold's Encyclopedia, Reeves from 19 and Reeves from a few years after look NO different, so that has me questioning his drug usage, if at all. I guess we'll never know for sure.

Did you guys know that Steve Reeves was offered the part of James Bond before Sean Connery, but he turned it down....

This is from IMDB

"The role of James Bond was offered to American actor Steve Reeves who turned it down. At the time, Reeves had become an international box office sensation in a group of European made mythological/historical spectacles."

Why do some people get so crazy at the idea that Reeves used testosterone? What does it matter what he did 50 years ago? For some twits it's like a religious debate and you're crucifying their messiah by suggesting that Reeves was on steroids.

Who cares?

Complaining so much about steroids only makes you look like a user by the way.

Did you guys know that Steve Reeves was offered the part of James Bond before Sean Connery, but he turned it down....

This is from IMDB

"The role of James Bond was offered to American actor Steve Reeves who turned it down. At the time, Reeves had become an international box office sensation in a group of European made mythological/historical spectacles."

This writer does not sound authentic to me. I have been around this game for 40 yearsas a competitor and official. The writers command of the language is quite unconvincing and sketchy at best. It sounds more like hearsay than actual events. Of course this is just my opinion.

Funny how all these pathetic people have "inside knowledge" the great Steve Reeves used steroids. A really weak grab for some attention. All these people have come out of the woodwork after Hercules died. Disgusting.